THE PUKEKAWA MURDER

Evening Star, Issue 17484, 15 October 1920, Page 2

THE PUKEKAWA MURDER

THORN ON TRIAL.

ACCUSED'S RELATIONS WITH SIRS EYRE.

£P«e United Peks3 Association^

AUCKLAND, October 14. The preliminary trial of Samuel John Thoni, charged with the murder of Sydney Seymour Eyre, of Pnkekawa, on August 24, began at Pukokohe to-dav before Mr J. W. Poynton, S.M* Mr R. P. Hunt, for the prosecution, in addressing the Court, said the case w,as a strong circumstantial one. It would be shown that the fatal shot was fired by one who had an intimate knowledge of the house. Thorn was the only one outside the family having that knowledge. At the time"of the murder Thorn was working at Granville's farm, 18 miles from Eyre's. The horse .under Thorn's charge had peculiarly-shaped shoes. The tracks discovered showed that it had been* ridden between the two properties on August 24. Eyre's house contained two guns, neither of \vhicb. had been fired recently. The gun in Thorn's whare had been discharged. It took a cartridge of the same calibre as that used to kill Eyre. Thorn was the only possessor of cartridges of that particular brand within a radius of 20 miles. Tho night of the murder was one of two nights when Thorn had been left alone \n his whare. The evidence would show while Eyre was awav, and after his return, Thorn had forcecl immoral relations on Mrs Eyre. Thorn had threatened Eyre's life before witnesses. He had said to Mrs Evre : "Don't you wish he was dead?" Eyre's sons had heard Thorn sneaking into their mother's room at night. The motive suggested was revenge for feeing discharged from a good position and being deprived of the opportunity for continuing relations which, were enforced en Mrs Eyre. Milhcent Eyre, widow of the deceased, stated that the property of 600 acres, owned by her late husband, was worth between £15,000 and £20,000. On the night of August 24 there was nobody at the house except members of the family, and everyone was in bed about 9 p.m. Her husband and Phillip were tho last to go to bed, and she saw that the front door was closed. She was awakened, after hav' ing been asleep some time, 'by accused's dog barking under the boy's room. Tins dog, " Bob," had been token away by Thorn when lie left, tbut had •come back by itself. The dog was barking furiously, and she called to it to lie down, which it did after a time, and she'again went off to sleep, to bo awakened later by the shot of a gun. She heard quick, heavy steps up the side of the house, Hpparently going towards the back gate. She called to her husband, and, getting no answer, she struck a light, and discovered the top of his head had been blown away. Between five and ten minutes after the boys had left the house for help she heard a horse cross tho bridge below the house, apparently going away from tho house. Accused last visited the farm on August 24. He had often -told her he loved her, and had asked her to go and. live with him. She admitted relations had been improper between accused and herself. They continued after her husband returned. She could not prevent him, because he said he would " put me away to my husband, expose me, drag my name in the gutter, and get me divorced." She saw accused at Tuakau Police Station after the murder. He asked her then what made her think he killed her husljand. She replied : " Circumstances." He asked : "What circumstances?" and she replied : " You knew the position of the feed and everything about the house." He replied : "True as I am here, I never did its"

Witness was still in the box when the case was adjourned.